To save a Hero
by theL3monTart
Summary: Danny has been captured for years in a Secret Government facility and is now only a shadow of the Hero he once was. Can the Young Justice team help restore Danny to the great hero he used to be? Read and find out :) Post season 1 Yj. Post D-stabilized DP. No PP.
1. Chapter 1

Danny slowly opened his eyes.

It had been so, so long since the last time he did, that even the shine of the flickering light above him stung his eyes.

After a lot of squinting and painful stinging, his eyes finally adjusted to the light. He blinked slowly as he shifted his head around to examine the area outside the glass tube he was forced to call home for the past only Clockwork knows how long.

Though he did not know how much time had passed, what Danny did know was that he was extremely home sick. He desperately missed his family and his friends. All who were probably sick with worry, wondering where he was. Or maybe.. maybe so much time had passed that they had already thought he was dead. Dead for good. Is that why none of them were looking for him? He berated himself every time he brought up that thought. He had no idea what his friends and family were doing; maybe they were still looking for him.

'If they are, then why haven't they found you?' One part of his mind would ask. 'Even you don't know where you are. Maybe they're just having a really hard time finding this place.' The other side would counter.

'Or maybe they just don't care about you.' vs 'Of course they do, they always will, I know it.' But Danny knew, he had lost hope a long time ago. He knew he was going to die here; wherever here was. He had never blamed them though. It was not their fault. It was his for being careless and letting his guard down, leading to his capture in the first place.

Danny found it both depressing and frustrating that he couldn't remember what they looked like. He'd often wonder about it. Had he been so traumatised while in captivity here that he could just forget such important details such as that? He knew he shouldn't blame himself too much though, because after all his time spent here, the only thing he could really remember were the experiments. He lost count after the 20th procedure. He eventually stopped screaming, stopped feeling, and stopped thinking; choosing to retreat into the deep recesses of his mind. Just to try and make it all go away. Those were the most peaceful times.

Nowadays, the scientists rarely performed experiments and dissections on his body; not that Danny could feel them anyway. Most of those tests were done during the first few years he was there. Every once in a while they'd take a sample here and there, but mostly they would keep him asleep; though still constantly monitoring him and his vitals. They didn't really care much about anything else coz after all, there was no need for a ghost to eat or drink. Therefore, he was rudely awoken only when they required him to. Those had been the experiments he hated most.

Today though, was very new, different and strange. Danny looked around the white-walled room, and noticed the absence of any scientist, security guard or any other personnel. Instead, mountains and mountains of rubble lay around him. Lights were hanging off their cords from the ceiling. Veils of glowing green that could have very well been his blood, lay shattered in shards on the floor; the goo oozing around it. It was then that he realised that the tube he was trapped in, which usually stood against the wall, was now free from the stand it was secured in.

Finally, had the time of his great escape finally arrive? Probably not. Cause Danny found it a great struggle to even move an arm up against the glass, much less bust his way through. Not to mention, the tube was also ghost proof and bulletproof, so no amount of super strength or ghostly energy could ever hope to penetrate it. He'd found that out the first week he was there. Who knows how many times he had bloodied his knuckles and broken fingers trying to punch his way out. He had been desperate.

Danny sighed and leaned his back against the tube wall. Always so close, yet so far. Suddenly, his vision blurred and he found himself fighting to stay awake. He didn't want to fall asleep, not right now, but he was just so tired.

Right before his eyes closed and his mind drifted into the comforting black, he silently let out one final cry for help; though he didn't not know who exactly he was pleading to.

'Please.. Help me.' Danny thought desperately, before letting the darkness take over.

Not knowing... that for once, his plea was finally heard.

-—

It was just another normal day for our favorite team of teenage superheroes. They were flying back in the bio ship from one of their recent missions- a crazed villain who discovered he had powers over the earth, was causing earthquakes all over the northeast side of Star City; causing many buildings to collapse and overall mass panic.

After successfully defeating the villain, and having him catered off to Belle Reve, the team stayed back awhile to help with some of the damages and to assist any injured citizens, before boarding the bio ship and headed back to their mountain base.

M'gann was steering the ship today, while Wally and Robin, and Kaldur and Conner, were engaged in their own conversations. Artemis was happily relaxing against her seat, arms crossed over her head, humming to herself.

They were just reaching the outskirts of Star City when M'gann's head started hurting, causing her to temporarily rock the ship, immediately grabbing everyone's attention.

Artemis got up from her seat and placed a hand on the martian's shoulder. "M'gann, what's wrong? Are you okay?" She asked concerned.

M'gann took a deep breath and looked up at the blonde. "I thought I heard something. In my mind I mean. Like.. I could feel someone in distress. Someone terrible pain." She finished, wrapping her arms around her shaking shoulders.

"Perhaps you are sensing a civilian nearby. Do you think you can locate them using your mind?" Kaldur asked, standing up from his seat to address the martian.

Robin came up beside her. "This sounds serious. I better take the wheel Miss M, while you figure out what's going on." He said, allowing M'gann to get up and sit on his seat while he took the driver's seat, letting the ship hover in the air while they sorted things out.

M'gann closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. After exhaling slowly, she opened her eyes which were now glowing green with power and concentration.

"I'm gonna try and reach out to it and if I can locate where it is." She said before slowly floating off the chair, face blank, while her mind went to work.

M'gann felt around for the minds around her and of course, she first noticed the feelings of her teammates. They were all concerned, both for the situation and for her; especially Conner, who was standing beside her protectively.

She concentrated harder, ignoring her teammates for the moment and searching for the mysterious mind that was calling out for help. The range in which she could sense minds was usually not so large, but this mind had seemed to call out to her so strongly. She was determined to help it, pushing her mind to go as far as it would let her. M'gann was deep in thought, so she couldn't exactly tell time but she was sure she'd been going at it for a good 15 minutes now with sadly no success. She was just about to come out of her trance, feeling disappointed at her failure, when she finally heard it. The voice in her mind was so small, so sad, and so fragile, that she feared that even the slightest thought or disturbance would cause her to lose it.

'Please.. Help me.'

She opened her eyes. "I know where he is."

* * *

 **Hey guys I'm back to writing this story! Please re-read the chapter if you would, as I have added in a lot of extra details and change a lot of the plot and stuff. Hope you guys still like it though :) Updated 21/10/2016**

 **There are a few things I need to clarify. This is set post season 1 BUT Rocket will not be part of the team. They all know her, and they have worked with her, but in the end she decided to just continue helping Icon. She may come in later, but will not appear a lot in this story. The reason for this? I don't really know her that well, so I'm not really comfortable with writing her and I don't want to write something shitty and have her Ooc. I hope you guys understand.**

 **Till next time! And remember guys, Stay Asterous!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Know where who is?" Wally asked as M'gann broke out of her trance and floated down, her feet landing softly on the floor of the bioship.

"Did you locate the mind you sensed earlier?" Kaldur inquired as well.

M'gann nodded. Shuddering a little, she wrapped her arms around herself again. Conner noticed her distress and put his arms around hers as well, comforting her. She smiled at him as thanks, but her expression quickly changed to a pained one.

"I sensed a male. He's trapped. Underground I think. And he's in alot of pain. All I could figure out was that his mind and body have been under a lot of stress for a very long time." Megan paused and looked at her teammates who listening attentively, focusing on her every word.

"He's fallen asleep, so I can't sense him for now but I do know where he is." She reached out an arm and sent a telepathic message to the bio ship. In a matter of seconds, a map of the area below them along with a pulsating dot appeared on screen. "Right here. Though I am not sure exactly where he is, I do know he is in that building."

"Or what used to be a building." Wally commented. "Looks like rock for brains earlier caused it to collapse. Along with most of the other buildings in this area."

True enough, the team took in the view of the area below them and saw only destruction. Thankfully, the citizens were evacuated in time, as the area was now mostly rubble and concrete. The team recalled that Batman did inform them that the villain had started his rampage from the outskirts of the city.

"But obviously this guy M'gann is talking about is still alright. Or at least still alive." The team's archer suggested.

Aqualad nodded. "Team, prepare to land. Robin, notify Batman of our location and our plan. We do not know how stable the building is, so take extreme caution when around the site. We will split into pairs. Robin and Kid Flash. Superboy and Miss Martian. And I and Artermis."

The rest of the team nodded at their leader and prepared themselves as the bioship landed.

* * *

After parking the bioship in a secure location, about a block away from the building, the team silently walked down the ramp of the bioship before it went into stealth mode, disappearing from sight. They nodded at each other before splitting up, each team using their own ways of approaching and entering the building from different sides as they could cover more ground that way.

Though most of the building was destroyed by the earthquake, the main structure was still intact, so a few stories were still safe to explore without fear of it collapsing. Robin and Kid Flash searched the upper levels, Artemis and Aqualad took the lobby and the storage rooms, and Miss Martian and Superboy looked through the lower levels and basement.

'Once one of us has found the victim, inform the others and we will regroup.' Aqualad ordered through the mind link. The rest of the team gave their okays and continued their search.

After about half an hour of searching, the team was getting more and more suspicious that the building couldn't have been just any old work building. Often they would find broken jars and test tubes. It's glowing green contents spilled in pools around it gave off a haunting feeling.

'This place looks like it could have been some sort of research lab.' Commented Robin over the mind link. 'The floors KF and I are searching through are filled with files and research material.'

The boy wonder stopped his survey and picked up a random folder lying on the ground. 'Ghost specimen No.415. Composition, slime and ectoplasm. Power level, 2.5.'

'Ghosts? Ectoplasm? Is this some research centre specializing in ghosts? Is there even such a thing?' Artemis thought.

'It would seem so.' Aqualad answered. 'I've heard from my king that they were earth scientists who discovered a portal to a 'ghost realm' a few years ago. It seems now that more and more people are taking interest in it.'

'You're talking about the Fentons, right? Those ghost experts?' Wally asked their team leader.

'Wait a second. You'll believe in the existence of ghosts, but can't accept that magic exists when you've seen it performed in front of your own face?' Artemis jokingly asked.

'Excuseee me! There's scientific proof and research and actual facts on ghosts! Until you can somehow find real proof of it, I ain't believing it. It's all just science deep down anyway.'

Artemis playfully rolled her eyes. 'Keep telling that to yourself geek.'

'Anyways, I better inform Batman.' Robin said, already beginning to type furiously on his wrist com 'I don't think these guys are part of any government agency that's listed. So what they're doing has got to be illegal. I mean, just listen to this- Experiment #5 extraction of ghostly arm. Experiment #9 dissection of ectoplasmic eye.'

Kid flash shuddered. 'That's freaking sick. And I don't mean in a good way.'

'Superboy, Miss Martian, what is your status and have you located anything out of the ordinary?' Aqualad asked over the link, as he hadn't heard the two over quite some time.

Eventually, it was Superboy who replied. 'M'gann and I are okay. I think she's just having a hard time having to split her powers. Keeping the mind link up, and searching for the person. I've tried using my infrared vision too, but for some reason I can't detect anything. We're about 5 floors down from the lobby now and-'

Superboy suddenly stopped, and immediately the team grew alert. Could something have happened to the two? Suddenly, the whole team felt a huge wave of emotion hit them at the same time. A mixture of shock, then sorrow followed by anger. Then as quick as it came, the emotions disappeared leaving the team, except Conner and M'gann, extremely confused.

'Woah! Did everyone else feel that?!'' Wally shouted through the link

'I'm sorry..' Somehow even through the mind link, M'gann's voice sounded small. 'I was just.. overwhelmed. I was concentrating too much on finding the person that I couldn't stop my emotions. Since we are all connected through the mind link, my emotions got transferred to you all.'

'That's okay M'gann, but what happened that suddenly made you feel that way?' The teams archer asked gently.

M'gann was silent. She wasn't sure how to, if she could, describe the scene before her. Conner was standing next to her and even without the mind link, he felt the same way she was. She saw her struggle and chose to voice out.

'Guys.. I think it's best if you got here and see for yourselves.'

Whatever it was, the rest of the team was rushing to them as fast as they could. If Conner and M'gann were this affected by whatever they found, it had to be important. With Wally carrying Robin on his back, the two best friends arrived at the floor Conner had mentioned around the same time Kaldur and Artemis did.

The 4 heroes turned a few corners and were greeted by a relatively long, white, hallway though the walls were cracked and the floor was littered with concrete and dirt. Down the hallway through some open double doors, they could see the backs of their two missing teammates, standing motionless.

"Miss Martian, Superboy, did you find the civilian?" Kaldur asked aloud as there was no need for the mind link when they were so close.

M'gann turned around and shivered, looking at her teammates with a pained expression. "Yes. We did."

At this point the rest of the team had just walked past the doors and into the room the alien and clone were standing in. Scattered around the room were dented tables and broken machines, debris and concrete yet again, all sorts of files and computers, but the most disturbing thing they witnessed had to be the array of surgical and measuring tools littered on the floor.

Then, they saw it.

Following their teammate's gazes, Wally, Artemis, Robin and Kaldur witnessed a sight they certainly did not expect to see. Up against a wall, surrounded by bits of the fallen ceiling and walls, was a giant glass tube. And in said tube, they found a white-haired, unconscious, teenage boy.

Apart from his pure white hair, the most noticeable thing about the boy though had to be the upper torso of his body which was bare and riddled with scars.

How did the boy got those scars? The team didn't know.

What they did know though... was that he needed help.

* * *

 **Hey all! So I got pretty good feedback with this story so I've decided to give it a go! Warning though, I literally have NO STORY OUTLINE whatsoever. This is pretty much all what my brain thinks up while I'm at work. (Please don't let my boss know xD)**

 **Anyways, I've changed the rating to T just in case I get too graphic (don't think I ever will) or it I curse (which I do)!**

 **Some Story INFO:**

 **I can't remember which guest asked me, but unfortunately, Jason will not be in this story. This story pretty much happens.. lets say a month after New Years. So the Robin mentioned in the stories is Dick Grayson. Probably should have clarified, sorry about that. Also, as I mentioned in the first chapter, I don't like writing characters I don't know very well. I mean, I know Jason Todd from the movies and comics and stuff. But I Don't know how YJ Jason would act, so I've decided against adding him in the story. **

**About ages.. I had to think long and hard about how I was going to make this work. I'll just give a list of the team's and Danny's age below:**

 **Robin: 14, Wally: 16, Artemis:16, Kaldur, M'gann and Conner: 17. (2011) I'm taking it as if a year has passed by since the start of the show till New Years. As for Danny, this is going to need a bit of explaining.**

 **Danny got his powers when he was 14, in this story that would be in the year (2003). He got captured when he was 17. (2006) So now in 2011 he would technically be 22 years old but ghost's don't age (thats my theory) so Danny still looks the same.**

 **Anyway, if you guys have any further questions, pm me or just write it in a review! Hehehe (trying to be all sneaky sneak). Goodbye for now! And remember guys, Stay Asterous!**


	3. Chapter 3

The team looked on in a stupor for all of 3 seconds, before their training and instincts shifted into gear. Kid Flash zoomed ahead and raced around the tube looking for an opening. 'There's a lid on the top but it's sealed shut. It's hooked up to some small locking device. Rob, we're gonna need you to hack it." KF shouted below, looking for the person in question only to find him missing.

"Already on it." The boy wonder said, appearing beside the speedster out of nowhere, causing the speedster jump up and shout.

"GAH! Seriously Rob, one day you're gonna scare me to death!" Kid Flash shouted exasperated. Robin merely gave him a smirk, and continued decoding the mechanism using his holo-glove.

"I'll ask the bioship to come closer so we can get him back to the mountain faster. There doesn't seem to be anyone around the vicinity, so I think it's okay." M'gann said, closing her eyes and bringing a hand to her temple in concentration.

Aqualad nodded in agreement. "Good Idea Miss Martian. Superboy, Artemis," he said looking at the two teammates mentioned, 'we'll do a final sweep of this floor. Make sure they aren't any other civilians." The both of them nodded at their leader and dispersed. They quickly started their search, looking into other rooms with similar cracked doorways, filled with debris and odd-looking machinery. Many of the rooms housed several tubes, much like the one the civilian was in. Most of the tubes were empty, but a few of them had strange, glowing goo at the bottom. Not knowing what it was, Aqualad, Artemis and Superboy simply relayed the information to each other, then moved on; continuing their inspection of the floor.

"Got it!" Robin exclaimed just as the mechanism gave off a whirring noise, popping the lid open. Robin and Kid Flash reached in, each grabbing gently onto one of the civilian's arm and slowly hoisting him up. They hooked an arm over each of their shoulders and carried him down over the rubble, and towards the doorway heading out. Halfway towards the end of the hallway, Miss Martian helped by levitating the boy, taking the weight of their shoulders.

"We got him! You guys need any extra help?" asked Kid Flash to Aqualad, as he, Artemis and Superboy met up with them.

Aqualad shook his head. "There is no need. We have confirmed that there are no other civilians. Let us quickly head back to the mountain and have him treated." Aqualad said, referring to the injured civilian. "We must contact the League as soon as possible. I am sure they will want to investigate this building further."

The team quickly made their way through the facility and reached outside where the Bioship was waiting; parked right in front of the entrance of the building. Once inside the Bioship, Miss Martian gently lowered the civilian onto one of the med beds, then took her post at the ship's controls and set the Bioship on course back to the Mountain. In the mean time, Artemis radioed in to the cave, alerting Red Tornado of their return and relaying a quick summary of what had occurred and of the civilian they found. He replied that he would notify the league and informed the team that he would have the med room prepared.

The team, except for Robin who chose to stay beside the civilian to keep check on his pulse, took to their seats; though their eyes never left the injured teen. Superboy shifted in his seat, a worried frown on his face. "Is he going to be okay? His heartbeat is really slow. I'm not sure if it's normal for him, cause I understand that not everyone has the same BPM. The average resting human heart rate is between 60-100bpm."

"For Martians, our normal resting heart rate is between 40-80bpm." M'gann added.

Conner nodded. "Yeah, yours is around 50bpm. But his… his is beating at around 10 beats per minute.

"Wuh-What?! That's super bad! What's going on Rob?" yelled Kid Flash, looking at his best friend. The rest of the team then noticed that Robin didn't seem worried at all. The team youngest simply continued to press his fingertips on the civilians wrist, while gazing at his holo-glove. After a few more seconds of silence, Robin finally let out a breath and let go of the boy's wrist.

"Looks like he's stable, though extremely weak. No signs of bleeding anywhere on the body, but we'll definitely need to scan him for any broken bones or internal bleeding. He is obviously malnourished; we'll need to wait till we're back at the cave to do a proper examination. Otherwise, for now I think he's gonna be okay." He answered, nodding to himself and switching off his holo-glove.

"Okay?! You heard Conner, his heartbeats going at like, 10 beats per minute. You sure that's normal for him?" Wally questioned the boy wonder. They rest of the team nodded their heads in agreement, wondering how their youngest member was so certain that the abnormal heart rate was nothing out of the ordinary.

Robin turned his head and frowned at the speedster. "KF, don't you recognize him?"

Wally shifted backwards in his seat, obviously not expecting the question. "Wuh? Err..," Wally turned to look at the civilian and squinted his eyes, trying to remember if he had seen the teen before. "I don't think so?"

"C'mon KF! He was the very first child(teen?) hero. And unlike us, he didn't have a mentor to train him. He figured it out on his own. I used to show you his battles online, and we looked up to him, remember?"

Wally scratched his chin for a second in thought, before his eyes suddenly widened and his mouth stretched open in shock. "Wait wait waittt a second. You're telling me, that _he's_ Danny Phantom?!" pointing a finger at the sleeping teen in astonishment.

"Who is this.. Danny Phantom?" Aqualad inquired. "How have I not heard of him before?"

"And what exactly do you mean by 'the first child hero?'" Artemis jumped in to ask. "I thought you were the first."

Robin shook his head. "Danny Phantom was a Ghost superhero." There was a murmur of 'ghost?' around the team, but Robin promptly ignored it. "He defended Amity Park, a town in Michigan*, from evil ghosts that would emerge from portals. These portals let ghosts travel from the Ghost zone to Earth."  
Wally nodded at Robin and took over speaking. "And the Ghost Zone is pretty much an alternate dimension where these ghosts come from- don't give me that look it's been scientifically proven-, and they come through and wreck the town. Most of the time the ghosts were just bored or playing around, but some of them did cause a lot of damage. A few tried taking over the world too. Regular villain MO."

"Phantom was the one protecting the town from them," Robin continued, "though the townsfolk had pretty mixed views about it. Half called him a hero, while the other half called him a menace."

"That's not fair!" M'gann huffed. "Didn't people realize he was helping them?"

"Most people only noticed the outcome of the battles. Damaged property, ruined roads and lampposts, the usual collateral damage. Comes with our job, but people were too ignorant to see past it." Kid Flash shrugged. The rest of the team frowned. It wasn't the first time for them, hearing a hero be blamed for something he had no control over.

"Despite all that, not a single death was recorded while he was on the job." Robin smiled, turning to look at the ghostly hero. The team's eyes widened with respect. That was amazing for a teen to do, much less by himself.

"He was really the first child(teen?) hero. But the rest of the world wouldn't recognize him for it. Back then; though they were a few enthusiasts, most people didn't believe ghosts existed. And when Amity Park would report on their ghost sightings and on Phantom's battles, most thought it was some hoax to promote the town's tourism. When I had just started out as Robin, a lot of the papers started labeling me as the first ever child hero. I got pretty annoyed at that, and did try telling them at some point but they didn't bother listening." Robin scowled crossing his arms around his chest. "Phantom first appeared when I was around 6 years old. I used to read about him online and thought he was pretty cool. He had been a hero for about 3 years, when he suddenly disappeared. Because he was ghost, some people believed he just returned to the Ghost Zone; but that wouldn't have made sense. Because why would he have suddenly abandoned the town he had been protecting, when ghosts were still emerging from the portals and wrecking the place?"

Artemis gasped, coming to a realization. "That's cause he didn't return to the Ghost zone. He was captured. And forced to undergo who knows what kind of torture in that place."

Robin brought up his holo-glove and opened up the screen, typing furiously. "His last known sighting was February 13th 2006"

M'gann gasped, hands covering her mouth in horror. "Then that means.."

Robin nodded, a sad frown etched his face as he turned to look at Phantom, and then at his teammates.

"He's been stuck in there for 5 whole years."

* * *

Hello again everybody! Sorry for the long absence. I cannot promise when I'll be updating chapters, but I WILL promise that it will eventually get updated. xD/

I dunno if anyone has re-read the previous chapters, but I did change a bit of it, so you guys might what to have a read. I updated everyone's ages in the 2nd chapter. Sorry if you guys all got confused in Dick's and Wally's explanation. Hope it doesn't seem bleh, but that's how it wrote itself :P Yes, Dick and Wally are Fanboys xD Especially Dick. More will be explained later~

*No one really knows for sure where Amity Park is. Alot of people speculated Michigan, so that's what I went with :P

Anyways, that's it for now! See you guys, and Stay Asterous!~


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